Benjamin Lambeth: NATO's Air War for Kosovo

AAA: Antiaircraft Artillery

AB: Air Base

ABCCC: Airborne Command and Control Center

ACC: Air Combat Command

ACTORD: Activation Order

AEF: Air Expeditionary Force

AEW: Airborne Early Warning

AFB: Air Force Base

AFSOUTH: Allied Forces Southern Europe

AFV: Armored Fighting Vehicle

AGM: Air-to-Ground Missile

AMRAAM: Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile

AOR: Area of Responsibility

APC: Armored Personnel Carrier

ATACMS: Army Tactical Missile System

ATC: Air Traffic Control

ATO: Air Tasking Order

AWACS: Airborne Warning and Control System

AWOS: Air War Over Serbia

BDA: Battle Damage Assessment

BDI: Battle Damage Indications

C2: Command and Control

CALCM: Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile

CAOC: Combined Air Operations Center

CAS: Close Air Support

CBS: Columbia Broadcasting System

CBU: Cluster Bomb Unit

CIA: Central Intelligence Agency

CINC: Commander in Chief

CINCCENT: CINC U.S. Central Command

CINCEUR: CINC U.S. European Command

CINCPAC: CINC U.S. Pacific Command

CINCSOUTH: CINC Allied Forces Southern Europe

CNN: Cable News Network

CNO: Chief of Naval Operations

COMAIRCENT: Commander Allied Air Forces Central Europe

COMAIRSOUTH: Commander Allied Air Forces Southern Europe

COMUSAFE: Commander United States Air Forces in Europe

CONOPLAN: Concept of Operations Plan

CSAR: Combat Search and Rescue

DEAD: Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses

DMPI: Desired Mean Point of Impact

DMSP: Defense Meteorological Support Program

DSCS: Defense Satellite Communications System

DSP: Defense Support Program

ECM: Electronic Countermeasures

ECR: Electronic Combat Role

ELINT: Electronic Intelligence

EO: Electro-Optical

EW: Early Warning

EW: Electronic Warfare

FAC: Forward Air Controller

FLIR: Forward-Looking Infrared

FY: Fiscal Year

GAT: Guidance, Apportionment, and Targeting

GATS: GPS-Aided Targeting System

GBU: Guided Bomb Unit

GPS: Global Positioning System

HARM: High-Speed Antiradiation Missile

HMS: Her Majesty’s Ship

HTS: HARM Targeting System

HUD: Head-Up Display

IADS: Integrated Air Defense System

ID: Identification

IFF: Identification Friend or Foe

IFOR: NATO Implementation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina

IMF: International Monetary Fund

INS: Inertial Navigation System

IR: Infrared

ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

JAC: Joint Analysis Center

JCS: Joint Chiefs of Staff

JDAM: Joint Direct Attack Munition

JFACC: Joint Force Air Component Commander

JTF: Joint Task Force

JTIDS: Joint Tactical Information Distribution System

JWAC: Joint Warfare Analysis Center

KEZ: Kosovo Engagement Zone

KFOR: Kosovo Force

KLA: Kosovo Liberation Army

LANTIRN: Low-Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night

LD/HD: Low Density/High Demand

LGB: Laser-Guided Bomb

LOC: Line of Communication

MANPADS: Man-Portable Air Defense System

MEU: Marine Expeditionary Unit

MFD: Multifunction Display

MLRS: Multiple-Launch Rocket System

MSTS: Multisource Tactical System

MTI: Moving Target Indicator

MTW: Major Theater War

MUP: Serbian Interior Ministry Police

NAC: North Atlantic Council

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NCA: National Command Authorities

NIMA: National Imagery and Mapping Agency

NPIC: National Photographic Interpretation Center

NRO: National Reconnaissance Office

OCA: Offensive Counterair

ORI: Operational Readiness Inspection

OSCE: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

PACAF: Pacific Air Forces

PGM: Precision-Guided Munition

POL: Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants

POW: Prisoner of War

RAF: Royal Air Force

RCS: Radar Cross-Section

RNLAF: Royal Netherlands Air Force

ROE: Rules of Engagement

RWR: Radar Warning Receiver

SACEUR: Supreme Allied Commander Europe

SAM: Surface-to-Air Missile

SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar

SAS: Special Air Service

SEAD: Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses

SFOR: NATO Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina

SHAPE: Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

SIGINT: Signals Intelligence

STARS: Surveillance Target Attack Radar System

TACAN: Tactical Air Navigation

TARPS: Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System

TF: Task Force

TIP: Tactical Integrated Planning

TLAM: Tomahawk Land-Attack Missile

TOT: Time on Target

UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UCAV: Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle

UHF: Ultra-High Frequency

UN: United Nations

USA: United States Army

USAF: United States Air Force

USAFE: United States Air Forces in Europe

USAFE/SA: United States Air Forces in Europe, Studies and Analysis Office

USAREUR: United States Army in Europe

USEUCOM: United States European Command

USMC: United States Marine Corps

USN: United States Navy

USS: United States Ship

VJ: Yugoslav Army

VTC: Video Teleconference

Between March 24 and June 9, 1999, NATO, led by the United States, conducted an air war against Yugoslavia in an effort to halt and reverse the continuing human-rights abuses that were being committed against the citizens of its Kosovo province (see the Frontispiece, Map of Kosovo) by Yugoslavia’s elected president, Slobodan Milosevic. As it turned out, that 78-day effort, called Operation Allied Force, represented the third time in a row during the 1990s, after Operations Desert Storm and Deliberate Force, in which air power proved pivotal in determining the outcome of a regional conflict. Yet notwithstanding its ultimate success, what began as a hopeful gambit for producing quick compliance on Milosevic’s part soon devolved, for a time at least, into a seemingly ineffectual bombing experiment with no clear end in sight. Not only was the operation’s execution hampered by uncooperative weather and a surprisingly resilient opponent, it was further afflicted by persistent hesitancy on the part of U.S. and NATO decisionmakers that was prompted by fears of inadvertently killing civilians and losing friendly aircrews, as well as by sharp differences of opinion within the most senior U.S. command element over the best way of applying allied air power against Serb assets to achieve the desired effects. All of that and more, however unavoidable some aspects of it may have been, made NATO’s air war for Kosovo a substantial step backward in efficiency when compared to Desert Storm.

This book assesses Operation Allied Force from a strategic and operational perspective, with a view toward spotlighting what was most gratifying about the application of allied air power throughout the effort, as well as identifying and exploring aspects of air power’s performance that indicated continued deficiencies in need of attention. The analysis is based entirely on openly accessible information, enriched at various points by inputs gleaned from interviews with selected Allied Force participants at both the command and execution levels. Although the U.S. government has yet to release many of the more recondite statistics associated with the air war’s prosecution at the operational and tactical levels, more than enough confirmed information on the broader essentials has now been made public by the Department of Defense and by leading NATO officials to permit a confident reconstruction of what happened during Operation Allied Force. As in the case of the Persian Gulf War a decade ago, the principal distinguishing features of NATO’s air war for Kosovo are no longer in dispute. What remains in contention are their meaning and implications.